I Possessed The Villain’s Childhood Friend

24 – A Tangled Story – 4

At the end of a heart-rending cry, Reina’s tears stopped.

And then she started talking.

“When a month passed since we exchanged letters, and you said you couldn’t send letters for about a week. Suddenly, Anna disappeared.”

There were still tears in her eyes.

As if his soul had escaped, he looked stunned.

“I don’t know why. Because the letter I left behind had nothing to do with it. It was fine so far though. It was written at the end that he would come back soon.”

I could have imagined enough.

Even in the sudden absence of Anna, Reina believes in her promise and endures.

The image of her standing strong, swallowing her sadness, was pictured in her mind.

“How about His Excellency Duke Rickard?”

“My father said not to worry too much and passed on quietly. Hearing the story, he seems to have said good-bye to his father before leaving.”

I thought it was strange.

I didn’t think much of the Anna I knew as belonging to the Duchess of Roselia.

To put it in the extreme, she felt like she was in the Duchess of Roselia, only looking at Reina.

While Anna left only a letter for Raina, she said goodbye to Duke Ricard for the last time.

Maybe Duke Rickard is hiding something.

“It has already been over three years since Anna left. But nothing has been heard since. I ask my father, but he won’t answer.”

Indeed, what was she feeling during that time?

I couldn’t figure it out.

“If I hadn’t left a letter at least, she would have given up quickly. Then she wouldn’t have to cling to her promises that couldn’t be kept. Stupid, really.”

Reina slowly raised the corners of her mouth and smiled dejectedly.

As if, finally, she had given up on everything.

“So? Are you finished with the story you want to hear now?”

Raina looked at me with cloudy purple eyes.

She looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was past 8:50.

Originally, it was time to go to the classroom for class, but I didn’t want to end the conversation.

‘I didn’t even send the promised letter, and the ball I’m participating in didn’t even come!’

She hadn’t heard the meaning of those words that she spat out while she was crying earlier.

I can assure you, I sent 3 letters a week during the 6 months I was allowed to write.

I sent the letter unilaterally, believing that there must be a reason for the lack of reply.

Also, she attended all the prom as much as possible, but Reina was told that she couldn’t attend each time due to her family’s circumstances.

No matter how much I think about it, it felt like I was forcibly trying to cut off Reina and me.

And if anyone can do that.

“… Duke Rickard.”

There was nothing else.

Why?

Anyway, the letter had a fixed period of six months.

Even if I avoid the ball I go out to, we will eventually meet again in Arcana.

I don’t think there’s any reason to forcibly break the link.

“If there is nothing more to say, let’s end it now. Classes will start soon.”

However, there was not enough time to talk about it, and he was reluctant to doubt Reina’s father unless he was certain.

“I’ll go first.”

Raina rose from her seat.

Since the first period is history, which is a common liberal arts subject for first graders, it would be okay to go together, but Reina didn’t seem to have any intention of doing that.

“Reina.”

“… ?”

Just before Raina opened the door to her consulting room and left, she inadvertently called her name.

I thought I would ignore it and leave, but luckily I stopped and turned my back to look at me.

I’m still full of doubts, but I wanted to say this.

“I will never betray you no matter what.”

“… Liar.”

It was sincere, but Raina gave a short and cold reply and left the counseling room.

But when she said that, it looked like she was smiling the same as before.

“But what kind of promise was that?”

‘Help me! If I’m struggling, I’ll always come running! I said it was a promise that I wouldn’t leave you alone!’

Another part of what Raina said.

Unfortunately, I never made such a promise.

It’s a pity that it’s not me, but if that’s the case, that must mean the promise I made with the real Ike.

Reina’s end was obviously beheading, which she faced lonely without anyone’s help.

But what if Ike was Raina’s best childhood friend?

And if you really made a promise like that.

The real Ike, who knows what kind of person Reina is, why the hell didn’t he keep his promise?

It was an incomprehensible question.

★

“Liar.”

Lifting the corners of his mouth slightly, he spat out at Ike.

I felt like I was smiling for the first time in a long time.

When was the last time you felt this way?

As I reassured myself, the feelings that had always subsided were a little bit better, but I felt better.

“By the way.”

As expected, it’s strange.

Ike listened to my story and put on an expression that he didn’t understand.

It didn’t feel like a lie.

And when I saw those eyes, I felt like I was waking up for some reason.

If you think about it, nothing good happened because Ike broke his promise.

After all, since our family is the second duke, it is impossible to completely cut ties.

“What I heard earlier was definitely my father’s name.”

Ike must have had similar thoughts.

A person who can make the link as weak as possible, even if it cannot be completely severed.

The person who can do that is my father. He has only one Rickardro Zelia.

But why?

The reason was unknown.

If that’s the case, we have no choice but to talk about it when we go back to our hometown during vacation.

“… It would be fine if I handed it to Ike for now.”

Originally, I had no intention of handing it over.

It’s embarrassing, but until today, I resented Ike for believing that he was a liar just because he was having a hard time.

But if he was not at all guilty of this situation, he could have forgiven him a little.

It’s true that he didn’t keep his promise anyway, although he can’t fully forgive him.

Anna suddenly disappeared, and Ike, who said he would not be contacted for a week, did not send a letter even after a week.

He kept putting letters in the magical mailbox, thinking that he might not know, but nothing came back.

It wasn’t even that the magical mailbox was out of order.

He wanted to go to Akkad himself, but his father refused to do so.

So I was isolated in an instant.

In a book I read a long time ago, there was a phrase that says, “The most terrifying thing for humans is loneliness.”

The fact that I couldn’t tell anyone how I felt was terrifying beyond words.

The memory of that time, which I never wanted to go through again, is still eating me up.

So I still couldn’t live like I used to.

At least until Anna returns.

★

It’s been an hour since the history class started, but sorry to the professor, I couldn’t concentrate at all.

“The Astraea Empire….”

Why did Anna leave Reina?

What role does Anna play in the original story?

Only these two thoughts ran through my head.

“Hmm.”

If Anna’s presence wasn’t important, Reina wouldn’t have reacted like that.

If Anna left Raina in the original work, why did she despair at the end of Raina?

Conversely, if Anna did not leave Raina in the original work, why did she leave now?

It would be nice if there was even a trivial information.

Originally, there were many plans to do something after coming to Arcana.

But that’s not what’s important now.

First, we had to solve the problem with Anna.

“The era of chaos has passed, and the era of peace has arrived.”

When she suddenly turned her head, she saw Reina writing down her lessons.

No one was sitting around, but no one cared about that.

It was natural for Reina Rogelia to be alone.

Although the children of her clique followed her around, they were clearly far from her friends.

So, after she entered Arcana, her first plan was to increase the number of people Reina could open her heart to even a little bit.

And the first person she thought of was Sophia, the heroine, but her chances were almost gone.

“Ha ha.”

It seemed like nothing was going according to plan.

Of course, I thought that my actions would have an impact on the future, but I thought I was as careful as possible about things that had a big impact.

But what came back to me.

Reina was completely in despair from the start.

And it was Reina and Sofia who seemed to start off with a worse relationship than the original.

“Ha ha.”

Even though I wanted to hold it in, I kept sighing.

“Ike? Is there something wrong?”

I had to keep my mouth shut after being pointed out by the professor in the end.

“Hey, over there. You are Prince Ike, right?”

The person who talked to me after history class was really unexpected.

“… Miss Sophia?”

“Oh, yes. This is Sophia Eris whom I saw in the garden yesterday. Thank you so much for your help yesterday.”

Sophia said that and bowed her head.

“And there is one thing I want to ask you, is that okay?”

“… Yes?”

“I want to apologize to him yesterday.”

Ah. It’s the first episode of the original story.

Although her heart was broken by Reina in her garden, Sophia chooses to talk to her again.

There was a reason why her partner was Reina of the Duke of Rozelia, but up until then, Sofia had wanted Reina to become close with her.

Originally, I go directly to Reina and ask for a conversation, but the story seems to have changed a little because I helped Sophia yesterday.

“Is it okay?”

Sophia looked up at me and she asked.

Of course, I also wanted Reina to become close with Sophia.

Sure.

“I’m sorry. I guess not now.”

Once I turned down Sophia’s request.

An episode in which Sofia visits Reina in the original story.

The relationship between the two is at odds once again.

Sophia apologizes to Reina, but she tells Reina that in time for her apology, she says it would be a good idea to study etiquette.

From nob le mt l dot com

Perhaps Reina wasn’t trying to be sarcastic, she was giving her sincere advice because she thought it was something she didn’t need to apologize for.

Of course, the problem was that the tone was so cold that I couldn’t feel it.

Anyway, if Reina is in that state now and Sophia visits her in the name of apologizing, she will probably fall apart even more than in the original story.

I almost gave up on the expectation that the two of us would be able to get close, but I didn’t think I would be able to handle it if things went wrong here.

“Since Miss Reina doesn’t seem very well right now, if she wants to apologize, I think she’d better do it later.”

“Is that so?”

Sophia’s expression darkened noticeably.

“Because if we just went to talk and then got into a fight, the atmosphere would only get worse.”

“Okay.”

“Miss Reina didn’t say it with malice, so don’t worry too much.”

“It’s okay. Because I was wrong in the first place.”

The moment I comforted Sophia and sent her back.

“I don’t think it’s a good thing to talk about others behind your back.”

Suddenly, a cold voice came from behind, as if even the blood would freeze.

When I slowly turned my back, Reina was looking up at me with her cloudy eyes.

“Young master Ike. Can we talk for a minute?”

There was no way I could deny that.